Catching Up With The Family
by PadfootProngs7
Summary: Two years after the Final Battle and days before Christmas the Dursleys, Potters and Weasleys have a family reunion of sorts.


"Oh, look there, Vernon! Don't you think Dudley would absolutely love that?" Petunia Dursley pointed with a glove clad hand towards the large television on display in the store's window.

Vernon Dursley eyed it distastefully. "Hm, but we got him a television for his birthday, Petunia."

"Oh yes," Petunia nodded in remembrance of the television set they had purchased for their son's twentieth birthday in June.

"I was thinking, Petunia," Vernon started, gripping her hand as they walked towards a large outdoor skating rink. "Maybe we should get Dudley a car."

"A car?" Petunia asked. "But, Vernon, that's awfully expensive."

"Not a large expensive car," Vernon said, pulling his wife towards a bench. He sat down and pulled her into the seat beside him and they gazed around the ice rink. "But something to start him off before he has enough money to buy his own."

Petunia nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, that's not a bad idea. He does need a way to get to work and school, I suppose."

"Exactly," Vernon nodded.

"Alright then," Petunia nodded.

"I was thinking of the newest Ford. Maybe the Taurus?" Vernon asked.

"Yes, I think he would like that..." Petunia trailed off as she rubbed her gloved fingers to try and warm them up.

"Cold?" Vernon asked.

"Just a tad," admitted Petunia.

"Why don't we go for a cuppa at that cafe?" He asked, gesturing towards a small cafe on the other side of the skating rink.

The two got up and linked hands as they slowly made their way around the skating rink to the cafe where they entered and took a seat at a window booth.

"I'll go get us a coffee," Petunia said, standing up. She knew that once Vernon was seated in a booth, he had some trouble getting back up.

Petunia pulled her gloves off and placed them in her purse as she approached the counter.

"Hello, what may I get for you today?" The barista asked kindly, her blue eyes sparkling, her blonde hair piled on top of her head.

"Two cappuccinos, please," Petunia said. As she looked down at her purse to find her wallet, a flash of red caught her eye, and for some reason she had the urge to look up, but she could barely see what had been red hair in the crowd that was outside the cafe.

The red hair belonged to a young looking girl. It was long and curly and a blood red colour. They girl was holding a hot chocolate in one hand, and her other was intertwined with a young man's...

Petunia stopped her actions all together as she stared at the young couple. The man had messy black hair, and even though she had not seen either of their faces, they reminded her of her late sister and brother-in-law. But it couldn't be them; they were dead.

"Ma'am?"

Petunia shook her head and looked up at the barista who was watching her with a slightly bemused expression.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"Your total..."

Petunia nodded and excused the couple from her mind as she counted out the money for the two drinks. Really, there had to be a lot of couples where the man had black hair and the woman had red hair. Shaking her head, Petunia nodded curtly to the barista, picked up the two cappuccinos and went back to the booth Vernon was sitting at.

"Thank you, dear," Vernon said, taking his cup and taking a large gulp after blowing on it.

Petunia nodded and took a dainty sip of her own drink to warm herself up as she willed herself not to think of Lily and her dreadful family.

Petunia and Vernon continued to make small talk as they sipped at their drinks and warmed from the chill outside. There were only a few days until Christmas, and it was quite cool outside. One couldn't stay outside with only a jacket and no gloves or hat or scarf without getting cold quickly. They were being promised snow in the days leading to Christmas, something that both excited and annoyed the Dursleys at the same time. On one hand, she loved how beautiful it looked when the snow first fell and it was white and looked so pretty and was untouched. On the other hand, once cars started going down the streets and the snow started to look dirty and turn brown with dirt and sand, it started to look quite unappealing.

"Well dear, shall we get going? We'll need to pick out a car for Dudley," Vernon said after he finished his drink.

"Hm, oh, yes, we should get going." Petunia drained the rest of her cappuccino and stood up, waiting patiently for Vernon to get out of the booth.

Finally, as the two exited the cafe, Petunia turned around to make sure that Vernon was still behind her, and when she turned back, she crashed into someone, almost falling back had Vernon not been behind her. There was a little squeal from the other person as she stumbled backwards

"Oh, I'm so sorry! Are you alright?" Petunia's face went white when she realised that she was looking at the red head she had seen earlier.

"Yes, well, you should be watching where you're going," Petunia said coolly as she recomposed herself.

"Yes, I probably should. I'm sorry again."

Petunia nodded stiffly and raised her chin as the young girl apologized once more and gave her an apologetic smile before turning around and heading back towards the skating rink.

"Young people these days," Vernon said ruthlessly. "They never think to watch where they're going."

"Yes, yes," Petunia waved her hand as her other grasped Vernon's again. "Dudley is expecting to meet us on the other side of the rink in five minutes. We best be going."

As they were making their way around the rink again, Petunia watched as a black haired man swung his coat over his shoulders and proceeded to the rink, skates already on his feet. As he swung his coat on, however, his wallet fell out. He did not seem to notice.

"Vernon, wait. That man dropped his wallet. I'll just go return it to him." Vernon grunted something that Petunia could not understand as she grabbed the wallet from the ground and approached the rink to call him over and return the lost item.

However, her eyes widened and her face paled as she saw the man's face for the first time.

His hair was black and it stuck up in the back. He had an angular face and high cheekbones. His eyes were almond shaped, but what stood out the most and shocked Petunia to the bone was the colour of his eyes. They were the brightest emerald green, and she had only ever seen those eyes on two people in her life.

"Petunia, what's the matter?" Vernon appeared at her side and tried to find what had shocked her so much but he did not seem to realise it.

Petunia watched with a sort of fascination as the boy offered his hands to the same red headed girl who had bumped into her. She was sitting on the side of the rink and looking at his skates apprehensively.

Slowly, the girl grabbed his hands and struggled to her feet, almost falling over as she stood up straight. The man laughed as he skated backwards, pulling her forwards. The girl was staring resolutely at her feet as she watched them slide forward.

She asked him something and he shrugged. His reply must have been unexpected because the girl looked up in surprise, and ended up tripping and falling forward. He laughed again and pulled her into an empty corner of the rink, further away from their unknown watcher.

"Petunia, what's the matter, dear? Did you lose sight of him? We can always take it to the police..." Petunia tuned her husband out as she watched the young man stop and wrap his arms around the girl's waist and put his mouth to hers. Petunia watched as the girl struggled to stay upright on her feet. The man pulled away and laughed, pulling her close to him in a hug, almost lifting her feet off the ground, causing the girl to squeal and grab him to keep from falling.

"Petunia!" Petunia started and looked to her husband.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" She asked, slightly embarrassed.

"What in the blazes are you staring at?" Vernon demanded.

"I – nothing. I was just looking for the man who dropped it. I found him," she added. When she made no move to start towards the rink to return the wallet, Vernon grumbled and grabbed the wallet from her hand.

"Who's is it?" He asked.

Timidly, Petunia pointed to the corner where the couple was still standing and swaying on the spot. Vernon did not seem to notice who he was headed towards as he grabbed his wife's hand and pulled her over to the corner.

"Hey, you there!" Vernon yelled. Petunia watched as the girl lifted her head form the boy's shoulder and looked up. When she noticed the Vernon was talking to one of them, she said something to the boy and pointed in their direction.

"Vernon..." Petunia whispered, but he ignored her. It was already too late as the boy turned around and Vernon swore, pulling to a stop at the edge of the rink.

"You!" Vernon yelled, pointed a fat finger at his nephew.

"Oh, er..." Harry looked at the girl helplessly, but she just looked confused.

Petunia swallowed her pride and stepped out from behind Vernon. She saw the girl look at her questioningly. "You dropped your wallet," she said with as much dignity as she could muster.

"Oh, er, thanks..." he grabbed the girl's hand firmly and glanced at her before gliding forward slowly, stopping when she lost her balance and almost fell over.

"Hurry it up, boy," Vernon snapped. "We have things to do other than wait for you to get over here."

Harry glared and continued to go slowly, making sure his companion didn't fall. When they reached the rink's edge, he let go of the girl's hand and reached out for his wallet as the girl wrapped both of her hands around his other arm. Harry opened the wallet and flicked through it, obviously making sure they hadn't taken anything.

"We didn't take anything," Vernon snapped, obviously knowing what the boy was doing. "Do you honestly think we would want any of your... abnormality?"

"No, 'course not," Harry replied evenly. He pocketed the wallet and looked at them. "How are you?" He asked finally. Petunia could tell it was out of courtesy that he asked.

"And why would you want to know that?" Vernon asked nastily. Harry shrugged.

"Curiosity?"

"Your kind are never just curious," Vernon all but snarled. Petunia lay a hand on his arm to calm him.

Just as Harry was about to give a retort, the girl's skate slid forward and, in his lack of attention he did not react quickly enough to stop her from falling onto her bum with a squeal.

"Ginny!" Harry bent down and pulled her to her feet, looking her over anxiously. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"Well," the girl – Ginny – said. "Other than my bruised ego and my sure to be bruised arse, I'm fine. I do want to get out of these bloody skates for now, though." Harry grinned and went to kiss her but seemed to remember that his aunt and uncle were still there, so he went with a quick hand squeeze. When he was sure that she had a firm grip on him, he turned back to his relatives.

"Well-" He was interrupted once more by a voice this time.

"Mum! Dad! I've been waiting for you for ten min – oh. Harry?"

Harry's eyes widened considerably. "Dudley?" He asked.

"Yeah..."

Ginny's eyes widened in recognition and she looked up at Harry's face, but he wasn't looking at her.

"Er... how are you?" Harry asked uncomfortably as Dudley's parent's looked on in a kind of fascination.

"I'm... good. You?"

"I'm pretty good," Harry said. Petunia saw the girl smile.

The five were silent for a moment. Just as Vernon was coming out of his shock and was going to announce that they should be off, Dudley asked,

"Who's that?" Gesturing to the girl still holding tightly to Harry's arm.

"I'm Ginny," she said before Harry even opened his mouth. She smiled brilliantly at the Dursleys. "Ginny Weasley. Harry's fiancée."

All three Dursley's felt their jaws drop. "But... you're only twenty!" Dudley stuttered.

"Actually," Ginny smiled politely. "I'm nineteen. Harry's twenty. We're planning on it being a long engagement," she added seeing their faces. "Harry still has a way to go before he's settled at his job, and I'd like to play a few years with my maiden name before I take on the Potter name."

"Play?" Petunia blurted. She closed her mouth abruptly and shot Vernon an apologetic look when he turned a furious face towards her.

"Yeah, I play professional Quidditch. It's my favourite sport. So, what are you up to, Dudley?"

She was very talkative, Petunia concluded.

"Oh, er... I'm still in school and I work at the shopping centre."

Ginny nodded with interest. "What do you do at the shopping centre?"

"I, er, I work at the film store."

"Oh, are films those pictures with sound that you watch?" She asked excitedly.

"Uh..."

"Yeah," Harry answered with a grin. "Those are films."

"That's neat. Harry's taken me to a few before. Muggle have very inventive minds. You all must be very smart to be able to come up with something like that without magic." She either didn't notice or didn't care when the three Dursleys winced and looked around them to see if anyone had heard the words 'muggle' and 'magic'.

"How dare you say those words in public!" Vernon whispered harshly, spittle flying from his mouth and landing in his large moustache.

"What?" The girl asked innocently. "No one's around, I'm not breaking the Statue of Secrecy. You three know about _our kind_. What? Don't you like being associated with us magic folk?" She asked when the small family shuddered. Petunia had a feeling the girl knew that they didn't like what she was saying. "Did I say something wrong, Harry?" She asked sweetly, looking up at her fiancé.

The Dursleys could tell she was humouring them when Harry grinned and shook his head. "They don't like hearing about our _abnormalities,_ Ginny," he said patronizingly slow, which was a dead giveaway after having lived with him for sixteen years, that he making fun of the group in front of them.

"We should be going," Vernon said after his breathing had slowed. "Goodbye." He nodded curtly to Harry and Ginny and set off. "Petunia, Dudley," he barked for them to follow him.

"Goodbye," Petunia said briefly to Harry and Ginny and waited for Dudley to say goodbye.

"It was... nice to see you, Harry." He held out his hand, and after a brief moment, Harry grasped it in a short handshake.

"Er, you too, Dudley."

Dudley gave a slight grin and turned to the young red head holding onto Harry's arm. "It was nice to meet you, Ginny." He held out his hand for her as well and Ginny took it straight away, sliding a little.

"It was nice to meet you as well, Dudley. Have a good Christmas."

"You too," Dudley replied.

"Dudley," his mother warned.

"Bye," he waved to the couple one last time and then followed his mum to catch up with his dad.

In the weeks to follow, Harry and Ginny would recount the event as quite funny once Ginny had realised who the three were. Vernon and Petunia Dursley, however, chose to dismiss the incident as if it had never happened. Dudley though, thought back on the occasion a fair bit and quite a few times he got the feeling that he wanted to get in contact with his cousin. A year later he finally got the courage to do so and sent his cousin a Christmas card.

**Author's Note - I like to think that just because Vernon - you have no idea how weird it was to write that without the 'uncle' part - treats Harry and other horribly doesn't mean that he treats his wife horribly. Really, would she have married him if he was a complete arse? I don't know. I doubt it.**

**Anyway, this was just a little one-shot that popped into my head a few days ago, and I thought it would be a nice Christmas story. :) I don't really like the end, but I believe that I could have had worse. I actually did. :P My favourite parts were writing the little Harry/Ginny moments Petunia witnessed.**

**And for all you asking how Harry can skate so effortlessly, let's just say that when he went to primary school they had annual field trips to a skating rink, and Harry was a natural. He's retained the knowledge of how to skate since then, okay? Okay. :)**

**So, a Merry Christmas to you all! Remember that it's about Jesus' birth, and not how many gifts you got. That's always something I have trouble remembering. And, since you probably won`t hear from me before the new year: Happy New Year to all of my faithful readers and the rest of the community! All the best in 2010!**

**-PadfootProngs7**


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